06/14/2010

Abie Philbin Bowman at the Hollywood Fringe Festival

The inaugural Hollywood
Fringe
Festival runs June 17-27 at venues throughout Hollywood. To
celebrate, this week is devoted to other people's shows via The Five
Questions. (Yes, this series was supposed to end yesterday, but this one came back late.)

Your shows directly engage with
heavyweight
issues often considered third-rail topics. Why is it important for
comedians to
do more than just joke?

I could talk
about myself for an hour, but why should anyone listen? There are much
more
interesting things happening in the world.

I love comedy
which challenges the way I think, or teaches me something about the
world, or
makes me laugh at how ridiculous my life is. So that's what I aim for.

Take climate
change. All the experts are extremely pessimistic, saying that in 50
years time
we'll have no polar ice caps, no rainforests, no ozone layer and no oil.
That's
pretty heavy. But the way I see it, in 50 years, I'll be in my 70s. So
you and
I are part of the luckiest generation ever. We're the only people in
history
who get contraception, iPods, cheap flights and an ozone layer.

How
do you walk the line between polemic and entertainment?

If
you preach to the audience, they get bored and zone out. So you have to
make
your point in an entertaining way. For example, if I read out a straight
description of conditions in Guantánamo, most people can't relate. so I
tell
them "try to imagine a maximum security prison, designed and run by
Kentucky Fried Chicken. There are battery-sized wiremesh cages, hideous
uniforms and the staff are mostly teenagers". We can all imagine the
horror of being trapped in our local KFC.

If
a potential HFF audience member could attend only one of your shows, how would you contrast the two shows to help them
decide?

The
clue is in the name. If you enjoy jokes about American Christianity, see
the
Jesus show. If you want a comedy about climate change and terrorism
watch
'Eco-Friendly Jihad'. If you prefer to laugh at racism and sex, go to
'Sex,
Lies & the KKK'. They're all (hopefully) engaging, thought-provoking
and
very funny.

The
only other notable difference is tone. When I'm playing Jesus I can be
funny,
and cutting, but I also have to be nice. Forgiveness is part of the job
description.

Whereas
when I'm playing myself - in 'Eco-Friendly Jihad' and 'Sex, Lies &
the KKK'
- I'm free to be a bit darker. I'm not a naturally nasty comedian - I
don't pick
on the audience. But I like exploring outrageous ideas and seeing how
far I can
bring the room with me.

What
do you most hope audiences take away from your works?

A
sore belly (from laughing for an hour) and a couple of new ideas.

Anything
you wanted to say, but I didn’t ask?

I
also teach workshops on how to write and tour a one-person show. There
is a lot
of undiscovered talent in Hollywood. Writing a one-person show allows
you to
take control of your own career, showcase your work, and tour
independently. I
teach people the creative and marketing side of the business (both are
vital).
in particular, anyone looking to travel to the Edinburgh Fringe, I can
save
them a few thousand pounds.

Touring
a one-person show isn't all good news. The cast parties are pretty dull.
But
the cost structure is great and nobody can outsource your job to China.